$20 CAD + shipping

As a politician, broadcaster, advocate and speaker of truth to power, Rafe Mair was crucial to the public conversation in BC and arguably altered the course of politics across Canada. As he says: “This is a book on Canada’s political system as you have never before seen it. We all know that our Members of Parliament vote not as we say or as they think best but as their leader orders.

“There’s a simple, cost-free solution that does not require any constitutional amendment. Leaders don’t like it, the backroom boys hate it, and “those who know best” can’t stand the idea – meaning it must have merit. And it does.”

Sadly, Mair passed away on Thanksgiving day while the book was at the printers. His wife Wendy Conway-Mair recalls his last months spent working on the book:

“as Rafe lamented this past summer, ‘this is my last kick at the can!’ so with blood, sweat and tears he wrote, researched and edited, to leave this legacy for future generations. Strong-minded to the end, he wrote with passion about our failed Canadian democracy and his solutions for change, the loss of freedom in journalism, and the tragic demise of our environment, including the role of the powerful fossil fuel industry. I think he hoped that with the completion of this book he could rest somewhat in peace.”

Politically Incorrect is part memoir, part history, part constitutional analysis and part pure Rafe – on federation, BC’s role, the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords, how Canada’s “responsible government” undermines democracy, and what to do about it – the “Mair Solution.”

See Rafe’s August 7, 2017 post announcing his new book on his blog, Rafe Mair Online.

What people are saying…

“In a well reasoned and sharply argued work, Rafe Mair shows us that the prerogatives of the voter have been usurped by those who control the political parties. They in turn are most responsive to powerful economic and ideological lobbies. As this system plays itself out, the particular regional interests of a province like British Columbia are likely to get ignored or distorted by those in control at a national level. If you want to know what is politically ailing you and what you might want to do about it, the best thing you can do is pay attention to what Rafe Mair has to say.”

“Rafe Mair is just such another happy warrior, cheerfully tossing and goring pomposity, falsehood and greed wherever he finds them….

“Rafe thinks this book is about British Columbia. Well, yes, it is. But it’s also a book about Canada by a great citizen whose particular service to the body politic is to toss it and gore it. And that’s exactly what it needs.”

— Silver Donald Cameron, Host and Executive Producer of TheGreenInterview.com, author of Warrior Lawyers and writer/narrator of the documentary film Green Rights: The Human Right to a Healthy World.

“The Indigenous People(s) of BC greatly valued Rafe’s political support, given his stature and prominence in the political discourse concerning the major Indigenous land and human rights and environmental issues confronting First Nations in BC…. We shall greatly miss his powerful, principled and uncompromising voice on the battlegrounds of public debate and public opinion.”

— Grand Chief Stewart Phillip

“Rafe Mair has been the voice of reason and liberalism in British Columbia. Like the Athenian Demosthenes, Rafe is the guardian of democracy who employs his gift of oratory in print to think of how representative government should be and to warn us when it fails.”

— Dr. André Gerolymatos, Director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University; board member, Canadian Advisory Council on National Security.

“Rafe has never pulled a punch anywhere in his long career in the public arenas. At times fearsome cajoling and always articulate, he chased after the truth daily. And he still does.”